The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-06-06
RtranRsrs' Church.

ChTists church.
Stranger Church.
The Rev. DR.. Long, of the Strau gers
church, preached a sermon yesterday
on the following text: Ps. xiv
1.-THE fool hath said in his heart thers
is no God" This declaration was
doubtless made by the psalmist in a
time Of great religious declension or
public immortality, after he had
weighed the character OF those whom
he denominates IS fools, and
after be had taken an eJti.
mate Of the moral and
social consequences Of their folly. The
man who has said in his heart that
there is no God is a thorough atheist,
and has eliminated from his breast all
religious sentiment, all feeling Of rev.
erance for higher power and has no
longer any light to guide him. sup
pose the psalnist calls this man a fool
because he violates his reason. No
wouder the psalmist thought, aud
every thinking man should think,
such man must be a fool,
self crazed deliberately and with
suicidal hand. But David
calls this man fool also,
no doubt because he violates the most
profound, inextinguishsble and noble
sentiments OF which his breast is ca.
pable. There is nothing
good In atheism, there is nothing
reasonable in 1t, there is nothing eatis-
flying In II to any man who has soul
one inch above the brutes. Religion
is an intellectual necessity; this is in-
dics ed by the universally OF religious
belief and sentiment There is no
we'll authenticated account OF any
tribe or nation OF people who do not
have some form Of religious faith and
sentiment. Religion 10 equally moral
necessity-men OF every state must be
restrained from crime. Nothing but
the iron hand OF law can restrain
man or any set OF men who have elm
mated God and the reign Of mental
responsibility from their brains and
breastr, and law itself can hardly do
it. You have never knoWa o Goddess
community that was not in the same
proportion wicked community,
Notwithstanding the laws Of the land.
Voltaire himself has said that II thsre
were no God 1t would be necessary 10
make one for the preservation Of
moral order. "If," says he, "God did
not exist, 1t would be necessary to
invent him, but all nature cries ont
that God docs exist. No real philoso-
nher that has ever lived has failed to
recognize the fact that nothing but
religion can effsetually restrain man.
kind from beastly wickedness and
make the wicked stand in awe OF
crime. ! defy any teacher in
the transCendent school OF utili-
tartan ethics TO show ANY solid
reason why man should be good II
there Is no God, no future beyond the
grave and no pertoral responsibility.
= . " But religion 10 spiritual
necessity to man. All those higher
elements and principles Of soul,
trbnscon dent faith and uDqusnchable
hope and supreme love aud pure wor-
chip which constitute the su0limest
and most purifying and ennobling feel
iDgj OF which the emit OF man is cap
able, find their EXPRESSION only in |
and through religion and can
be developed only by religion.
in themselves and in
their power upon the breast of man,
they require transcendant object for
their srcise. To exercise them on
below God, or less than
God, Is but to smother and degrade
them. To put ones trust in anything
and evsnescent-to hope for
naught but earthly good that never
comes according TO aDticipation-to
love supremely anything that dies, or
bow In worship at the shrine OF things
hat crumble into dust, ia but to real.
ze the poets picture of a.
u Soul i'm mortal spending all its Ares,
Wasting Is sire 9Th 10 strenuou, dleness,
Thrown into tumult, rap ured or alarmed
BY hngs this scene can threaten and in.
dulse;
Resembling ocean into tempest wrought
To watt u feather or to drown my ~
Better fat to b,A Wild bsps; Of the
,wn strength, to hope for nsught be.
,ond the range OF sight, to live by in
tinct and to stand in awe Of nothing
,ut come greater beast, the Indians
.rrow or the hunters rife. But man
must trust in something, must hope
nd love, and oil the powers OF his
oul must be concentrated In worship.
he man who walks through life and
Doks upon it's dangers and
Is dreadful termination and
annot put bis faith in soma all wise
nd ever present power, the man,
rho, ss he looks around him on his
roken idols, sundered ties, and ship
prospects dashed and strand
every where, cannot look through
ope's celestial glass and see the sweet
sunious, happy walks and converse.
ons that await him in better and !
sphere, pity from !
" soul And the man whose :
,ul is not sglow with Christlike love :
n his own kind. for highr beings :
no fit near him in the ever bright :
Ing twilight OF ano her world that :
lged with its golden wings close to
n, and for that peri ct and trans
ndant Being dwelling in the bosom
that world from which ralioion